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OUR COUNTRY 



A SERMON 



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OUR COUNTRY. 



A SERMON 



PREACHED ON 

THANKSGIVING DAY 

NOVEMBER 3-i, 18G4, 

IN THE METHODIST CHURCH, 

(UNION SERVICES,) 

NEWPORT, 1ST. EL 

BY 

EEV. C. M. DINSMORE. 



CLAREMONT, N. H. : 

PRESS OF THE CLAREMONT MANUFACTURING COMPANY. 
1865. 






• t 

D^8 



Newport, Nov. 24, 1804. 
Rbv. C. M. Dihbkorb: 

S — We, the undersigned, having beard your very interesting and 
e delivered before the united religious Societies of this place, this 
Thanksgiving May. and in accordance with our own and the expressed wishes 
of many others who heard you. have called upon you and earnestly request 
a copj of said Discourse for publication: believing that its perusal would 
arouse in the mind of the readers spirit of Christian patriotism, and a purer 
a to Country. 

LEVI W. BARTON, 
WILLIAM NOURSE, 
BENJAMIN F.SAWYER. 



Newport, Nov. 25, 18C4. 
Messrs. L. W. Barton, William Nourse. B. F. Sawyer: 

Gentlemen, — Your polite and complimentary note was duly received ; and 
allow me to say that the Discourse referred to is a very humble and unpre- 
tending document, not written for publication; but if in your judgment you 
think it would, by being read, promote in any degree a " spirit of Christian 
patriotism, and a purer devotion to Country.'' it is at your disposal. 
Respectfully yours, 

C. M. DINSMORE. 



SERMON. 



" Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his 
courts with praise." — ps. 100 ! 4. 

" For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good 
land."— Deut. 8:7. 



As a Christian people we meet to-day, to celebrate again 
a time-honored festival, established by the wisdom and piety 
of our pilgrim fathers. But not as in years past. Then 
war's dark cloud had not risen. Law and order prevailed 
throughout the whole country. Peace and uninterrupted 
prosperity brightened our skies. Our once glorious Union 
was everywhere shedding its rich and impartial blessings 
upon a land "unrent with civil feuds or drenched in frater- 
nal blood." Peace was within our w r alls, and prosperity 
within our palaces. Each State rejoiced in the privileges and 
blessings of the Federal Government, and the woes of Re- 
bellion, the folly and madness of Secession were unknown. 
But though a terrible civil war has befallen us, yet we are 
not without occasions of gratitude and praise to God. 

In the language of the President's Proclamation, "It has 
pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another 
year, defending us with His guardian care against unfriendly 
designs from abroad, and vouchsafing to us, in his mercy, 



many and signal victories over the enemy, who is of our own 

household. It has also pleased our Heavenly Father to 
favor, as well our citizens in their homes, as our soldiers in 
their camps and our sailors on the rivers and seas, with unusual 
health/' We assemble not only at the request of his Excel- 
li ncy the Governor, and in accordance with the rccommcn- 
dation <>i' the Chief Magistrate of this nation, — hut because, 
I trust, we an' nol wholly unmindful of the many mercies 
with which a kind Providence has crowned the year. An 
abundant harvest has rewarded the labors of the husband- 
man. The blight and mildew have not blasted our fair fields. 
The gaunt form of poverty and famine has not visited our 
dwellings. The God of the Seasons, who has ever revealed 
! imself to us better than our fears, has sent the early and 
! : i<' latter rain and rescued the land from threatened drought ; 
and the various products of a well-cultivated soil have not 
failed us. Our granaries are full, our barns and cellars are 
uiting in the necessary food for man and beast, disarm- 
ing the terrors of cold Winter's approach with his face "sullen 
and sad." wreathed with clouds and storms, for joyous Plenty 
sits smiling at our doors. Life, too, with its innumerable 
1 Les8ings and gracious opportunities, is still granted unto us, 
and the rieh boon of health, without which life becomes a 
burden. Our homes and our friends, our social comforts 
and enjoyments have not been denied us. We have been 
mercifully protected from "the pestilence that walketh in 
darkness, and the destruction that wasteth at noonday." — 
Though we are plunged in war and thousands of our noble 
- ais and brothers, at their country's call, rushed to arms 
with the battle-cry of freedom sounding in their ears, brav- 
ing tin' perils of war, sacrificing their lives for the honor of 
our flag anil hurling J>aek the armed legions of traitors striv- 
ing in their madness to overthrow this fair fabric, reared by 
the Bweal and toil and blood of our fathers, vet we as indi- 



yiduals have known but little of the devastations, hardships 
and horrors of this terrible conflict. We know nothing of 
the stern realities of war ; we are too far removed from the 
awful scenes of carnage and death. It is true we have read 
and heard much, but seen and felt but little.. Our fields 
have not been laid waste, our hills and valleys have not 
resounded with the tread of marshalled hosts, our mountains 
have not re-echoed with the booming cannon's loud peal ; 
pillage, fire and sword have not driven us from our peaceful 
homes. From the quietude, the thrift and enterprise every- 
where seen around us, the ease and cheerfulness with which 
taxation for the support of our Government is borne, the 
apparent unconcern for the future, who would suppose that 
our country was involved in one of the most terrible con- 
flicts ever recorded in the annals of history, — in a contest 
involving our very existence as a nation. Strange as it may 
seem, the various branches of business have not been mate- 
rially affected. The usual channels of activity, the different 
departments of trade, the usual industrial pursuits have ex- 
perienced but little interruption. When did our farmers 
ever receive more for their hay, grain, beef, butter, pork and 
wool, or pocket money faster than during the past year ? — 
When was your own community more prosperous than to- 
day? Your mills, your stores and shops, your fields and 
homes, your comforts and luxuries too, betoken no pressure 
of the times ; no temporal wants, no fears of bankruptcy, 
or doubts concerning the stability of our government or the 
ultimate and complete triumph of our cause. Not a family 
is destitute of food, raiment and shelter. The cry of chil- 
dren for bread is nowhere heard amongst us. While we 
acknowledge our temporal blessings and prosperity, we would 
not forget our spiritual mercies : The Bible, the Sabbath, 
the glad tidings of the Gospel, the Sanctuary, the privilege 
of worshiping God according to the dictates of our own 



G 

iences, the gentle influences of the Holy Spirit, the 
gracious answers to prayer, the success of Christian efforts to 
do good, the blessed results of the "< christian < !ommission " 

alleviating the Bufferings of our brave soldiers— shedding 
light and comfort to the wounded and dying in camp and 
hospital ; frequenl revivals of religion, the prosperity of our 
as domestic and foreign, the integrity of the Chris- 
hurch, peace throughout her borders, the humane and 
brotherly spirit of all the true followers of Him who. while 
hereon earth, "went about doing good." God in his sov- 
ereign mercy has given to this nation during the past year 
Buch prosperity — temporal and spiritual — as no other people 
hive ever known during the vigorous prosecution of an inter- 
nal war. It behooves us on this day, publicly to acknowl- 

. Him "• from whom cometheveryg 1 and perfect gift," 

and humbly repenting of our sins of omission and commission, 
with devout reverence and gratitude to "enter into his gates 
with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise : for the 
Lord is good ; his mercy is everlasting ; and his truth 
endureth to all generations." Through a kind Providence 
v. ■ have been spared to enjoy another Thanksgiving, to 
participate in the festivities of an institution which has been 
fondly and sacredly cherished, especially in New England, 
since the days of our pilgrim ancestors, and whose annual 
recurrence is ever welcomed by the young and the old, the 
poor and the rich. We are reminded that another year has 
flown — gone to return no more — hearing with it the impress 
of ouf deeds now stamped upon the scroll of eternity. We 
have seen the goodness of our Heavenly Father in the 
chapging seasons, and have been cheered and Messed as in 
their beauty and freshness they have come and gone. We 
greeted gentle Spring with its "ethereal mildness," its 
swelling buds, its Bong-feasts amid leafy groves, itsrefreshing 
showers and hope-inspiring breath. We have admired the 



shadowing roses and the green meadows of refulgent Summer, 
and rejoiced when Autumn, nodding o'er the yellow plain, 

" Crowned with the sickle and the wheaten sheaf/' 

comes jovial on with her rich and varied hues gorgeous in 
her robes of orange and crimson ere the falling of the sere 
and yellow leaf ; and as we have been gladdened with those 
who have plucked the luscious fruit from the bending bough, 
reaped the golden wheat fields and harvested the yellow 
corn, it is meet that friends and old acquaintance dear, that 
scattered family circles should gather as in days of yore 
around the familiar hearthstone to clasp the friendly hand, 
to kindle anew the fires on Friendship's sacred altars ; to 
recall the past — the sunny memories of by-gone years — to 
brighten each other's countenances, while hope sheds her 
cheering rays upon the future, and forge tfulness and charity 
throw their mantles upon the faults and griefs of the 
past. And when with thankful hearts we are permitted to 
gather once more, as in childhood's days, around the well 
spread board, laden with the rich bounties of heaven, and 
there behold the vacant seat, — for time hath wrought sad 
changes, and, alas, all are not here ! — the joyous spirit is 
o'ercast with sad and mournful thoughts, and affection's 
gentle tear trickles down the cheek — may we not murmur 
and repine at the dispensation of " Him who doeth all things 
well," remembering that "affliction cometh not forth of the 
dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground." Let 
us not unduly mourn for those who have passed to the better 
land, either from our peaceful homes with loved friends to 
watch around them in their departing hours, or on the 
battle field with no soft hand to soothe and cheer those 
precious gifts so willingly laid upon our Country's altar, 
those heroes and patriots who have so gloriously fallen in 
our country's defence. Let us cherish most sacredly their 



8 

memory, their many virtues, their lofty patriotism, un- 
daunted courage, unmurmuring fortitude, heroic patience, 
unswerving fidelity to the dear old flag, and offer thanks 
to the Grod of battles that we still have a Country and 
cause worthy of bo rich a Libation and so costly a sac- 
rifice. 

Bui what is our Country, and what are our hopes for the 
future P Our enemies tauntingly say, " Watchman, what of 
the night ?" Though the dark clouds of disunion have so 
long o'ercast our skies and the red right hand of treason 

brandished alofl the bl ly sword, may we not answer " the 

morning cometh ?" May we not confidently hope that our 
courage will be equal to our perils, — for 

"Already we have conquered half the war, 
And the less dangerous part is left behind," — 

our resources prove commensurate with our dangers; the 
abundance of our supplies be adequate to all our wants, and 

that the fearful strain brought to bear upon our Government 
-hall be more than matched in the strength and patriotism 
of a brave people, the greatness of our country, the wealth 
of our land and the righteousness of our cause ? In the 
language of Holy Writ, the lines have fallen to us in pleas- 
ant places, we have a goodly heritage. The God of our 
puritan fathers brought them into a good land : " For the 
Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of 
brooks of water, of fountains, and depths that spring ou1 of 
valleys and hills ; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and 
fig trees, a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarce- 
ness, thou shall not lack anything in it ; a land whose stones 
are iron, and oul of whose hills thou mayest dig brass." As 
in the days of Israel. 80 now God requires a proper recogni- 
tion of his authority and of our dependence upon him with 
due regard to his holy will and word: " When thou hast 



9 

eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy Grod 
for the good land which he hath given thee." 

But turning to our country, to glance at our resources, we 
find ourselves geographically situated in the midst of ;i vast 
and almost boundless continent ; as the poet hath it, 

" No pent up Utica contracts our power." 

We are favored with a climate the most agreeable and 
healthy, a soil the most fertile and productive, a national do- 
main vast in extent, of superior advantage, rich and abundant 
in treasure. A land indeed of " wheat and barley, of vines 
and fig trees." Our mountains and hills are the depositories 
of iron, zinc, copper and lead. From the depth of our 
verdant valleys where " sleep the mineral generations," the 
silver and the gold glitter washed from its silent bed by 
mountain streamlets, gushing in their fullness and wanton- 
ness, as they leap from the moss-grown rocks and sparkle 
in the sunbeams of heaven. Literally it may be said, 
"Out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass, whose stones 
are iron." 

However long the war may continue, there can be no lack 
of material for our iron-clad and invulnerable monitors and 
gunboats. The bowels of the earth are filled with coal, 
amply sufficient to furnish the nation with fuel for thousands 
of years to come. Our land contains Ophirs and Eldora- 
dos of silver and gold, whose shining treasures are constant- 
ly laid open, dissipating all fears of the ability of our 
Government to pay the interest on the national debt and in 
due time to redeem all her pledges in pure gold, and then 
leaving a surplus adequate to supply the gold currency of 
the whole moneyed world. 

Our Eastern and Western shores are washed by the two 
great Oceans, upon whose broad bosoms our Commerce has 
hitherto floated in safety, unharmed by Floridas, Sumters 



10 

Uabamas. All thanks to Capt. Winslow and the heroes 

who are clearing our seas from the annoyance and danger of 

piratical crafts and the blockade runners thai they 

have so successfully overhauled and brought to justice. Our 

sails have whitened ever} sea, throwing to the breeze, in 

port of the world, the Stars and Stripes, everywhere 
commanding respect. It was reserved for Southern rebels 
and traitors -nourished and enriched 1>\ Northern Commerce 
— to offer the first insull to the American Flag. 

Behold our mighty rivers which, like great veins and 
•ad and deep, afford us thousands of miles of 
valuable navigation, as they majestically wind and sweep 
along through the length and breadth of the continent — 
and every river and lake in the land, every bay and gulf 
along our coasts, utter a solemn protest against a dissolution 
of the Union. The voices of many waters sound to every 
passing breeze againsl a division of this country. These 
silver threads and shining expanses cannot be broken or dis- 
severed. They hind the different sections of the country 
together more effectually and (irmly than hands of si eel. 
Ii is one of the things that by Nature and Providence are 

d, that weare to be one Country ; that the American 
people and nation are ''one and inseparable/' — and what 
"God hath joined together let not man put. asunder." The 
beautiful Hudson, the majestic Ohio, the far-reaching Mis- 
souri, the broad Cumberland, the rolling Mississippi— the 
" father of waters," which can never be severed in twain, 
and now unobstructed by rebel forts, for, long since Vicks- 
burg, Porl Eudson and New Orleans were wrested from the 
usurped grasp of the enemy — will all, as in other day-, bear 
their thousands of noble steamers, ploughing their way 
from city to city and from the interior to the ocean. And 
when Peace shall again return, our steamers and sailing 

. now required in the service of the Government, will 



11 

not go crowded with armed posts, chariots and horsemen, 
monster cannon and all the paraphernalia and munitions 
of war, but laden with the rich products of Agriculture 
and the Mechanic Arts, and connected by our grand sys- 
tem of canals and railroads with the great inland lakes, 
thereby rendering our internal traffic and foreign trade the 
most lucrative and extensive of any other nation on the 
globe. . 

The progress of this war has developed or brought to view 
the varied and wonderful resources of this country. How 
valuable have become our sturdy old forests — venerable as 
those in which the ancient Druids worshiped — with then- 
great oaks and lofty pines, grown stout and firm by battling 
against the northern blasts and ready to furnish our rapidly 
increasing navy with solid ribs or towering masts, and thus 
contributing to make those floating death-belching forts 
firm and impregnable from keel to deck, and stout and strong 
from stem to stern ; and with such a growing navy as ours, 
we shall be able, when this rebellion is put down, to settle 
any little difficulties with John Bull or Louis Napoleon, and 
bid defiance to the leagued squadrons of the Old World. 
Our prairies also, almost boundless, decked with flowers and 
waving in wild luxuriance, whose soil is inexhaustible, are 
yet reposing in their primeval grandeur and fertility, undis- 
turbed by the plough, the loom and the anvil. The great 
West, — that has given to us in these trying, times an honest 
President, — with her teeming millions, so enterprising and 
loyal, is yet comparatively uninhabited. Millions more will 
find there a home, with plenty of wheat, pork, cattle and 
corn. None need famish in this " good land," for the earth 
has brought forth bountifully ; and our brave soldiers pin- 
ing in Southern prisons, and the suffering sons of want in 
other lands, need not go unfed. By a law of necessity, 
foreign emigration continues to pour its swelling tide of 



12 

humanity in upon our shores, and it stops not to crowd 
our Eastern cities, bul sweeps on toward the Rocky Mount- 
ains — for indeed 

■ Westward the Star of Empire takes its way," — 

to cultivate with " vines and fig trees" our new and unoc- 
cupied territories, peopling Oregon and founding along the 
shores of the Pacific greal commercial cities ; and, moulded 
by our institutions to a higher civilization, contributing to 
the growth of our country, the development oi its latent re- 
sources, thai by our energy, industry, liberty and free labor, 
we may outstrip the Old World in commerce, wraith, agri- 
culture, art, and general intelligence among the 
masses of a free and brave people. The great store houses 
of the land, with their untold millions of bushels of wheat 
ami corn, like the sources of our political power and national 
Btrength, are to be found in the West. Here are the future 
granaries of other lands as well as our own. The long de- 
lay, id projecl of the Pacific Railroad must soon become a 
fixed fact, and when the snorting of the iron horse is heard 
along the valleys of the great West, through the passes of the 
Rocky Mountains and si retelling on over the broad expans - 
to the Pacific, and thus opening a direcl line of communi- 
cation between the tw i greal oceans of the world, across our 
entire continent, then will the United States necessarily 
become the central mart of trade for the civilized world — the 
lap of commerce into which, if we are true to our history 
and destiny, will be poured the wealth of the nations. 

The American nation is yet new. born in 7(> with a people 
of versatile genius, of active habits, adventurous spirit and 
indomitable energy. As a young giant, it has sprung from 
the wilderness, and, though scarcely out of iis minority, it 
posesses Titanic muscle and Eerculean arm and is new 

rapidly developing into true national manhood, determined 



13 

to run with heroic strides the proud race marked out for it. 
Grown rich in " houses and lands, flocks and herds, silver 
and gold," chastened hy sorrow, redeemed through suffering, 
baptized with blood and saved as by fire, let us faint not nor 
quail in the hour of trial, but gird on our strength and 
bravely work out our heaven-appointed destiny as 

"The land of the free, 
The home of the brave." 

The utility of the Federal Union was seen in the depend- 
ence of one section of the country upon another, and mutu- 
ally contributing to the prosperity of the whole. The East, 
or New England, has been the seat of our manufacturing 
interests, and the home of the mechanic arts. With our 
beautiful waterfalls, our mill-privileges, our dashing streams, 
along whose banks spring up as by magic wealthy cities, 
thriving villages, whose industrious inhabitants sing to the 
music of the spindles and rejoice amid the din and buzz of 
mighty machinery, we have become chiefly a manufacturing 
people ; not so much from choice as necessity, for a large 
portion of our soil is better adapted to grazing than to the 
interests of agriculture. Hence, to supply our Eastern or 
Atlantic cities we must draw largely from the West for our 
beef, pork, flour and corn. From the sunny South, with 
soil so rich and so miserably cultivated, must come our 
cotton and rice. But northern mechanics have furnished the 
agricultural implements used in the cotton fields and rice 
swamps of the South. And the North supplied the South 
with cotton cloths, woolens and delaines manufactured at 
Lawrence or Lowell. Before the rebellion broke out it was 
convenient for our " Southern brethren " to educate their 
sons at our colleges aud law-schools ;. their fair daughters at 
our various seminaries of learning, and to depend upon the 
North for their school teachers and tutors, in their families. 



14 

Northern publishers furnished the stationery and printed 
the' books of the South, and for the most part read them 
The Wesl has hitherto received in a great part from 
si her ploughs to till the soil, steam engines and cars 
for her railroads, to say nothing of the minor comforts of life. 
1 d wagons found their way to California. Machinery 

Ituilt in Worcester is used all through the South and West. 
Springfield rifles are found alike in the hands of rebel and 
Onion soldiers. Connecticul clocks, like Lynn shoes, found 
their way into every part of the land : and, for ought we 
know, the same may be said of the flannels manufactured 
in N swport, or the scythes, rakes and hoe handles or the 
Leather from our tanneries. 

I' ours is especially a "good land" in that it is so highly 
favored with educational advantages, thus securing general 
intelligence among the masses as the chief hope of our repub- 
lican institutions. Our government, which is of the people 
and for the people, is both democratic and republican. We 
our own rulers, and the exercise of the sovereign 
power is lodged in representatives elected by the people. — 
The people being the only sovereigns of the land, they of 
course must be educated in order to insure safety and per- 
manency to our institutions. Ignorance is better suited 
aarchical governments than to our free, elastic and 
popular system, whose strength is being now so terribly 
tested. If we mistake not, the question to be decided by 
us in this struggle is whether the people possess not the 
right— for this is granted— but the capacity of self-govera- 
nieni ; whether we shall have an Oligarchy or a pure Democ- 
racy ; whether a self-constituted landed aristocracy or the 
ji' ople shall control in the administration of the government, 
and the policy of the nation be dictated not by the few but 
the many ; the majority of the citizens, in the exercise of 
their just and constitutional rights, being permitted to 



15 

decide the policy of the government, the character of < mi- 
legislation and who shall hold the reins of government and 
pilot the ship of State. 

The power of a nation lies in the character of the people, 
and the whole people — their intellectual, moral and social 
condition — recognizing the great fundamental truth of reason 
and revelation, that all men are created free and equal ; 
with no exclusiveness, no privileged classes, no barrier- of 
rank, caste or color, whether Patrician or Plebeian, feudal or 
serf, gentry or commoner. This is our Anglo-Saxon Bill 
of Rights, the Magna Charta, not of English barons, but 
of American liberties, the self-evident truths, the funda- 
mental principles of the Yankee nation. The friends of 
monarchy and aristocracy in the Old World have never been 
in sympathy with our form and spirit of government. They 
have watched with jealous eyes our .unparalleled prosperity, 
and our overthrow would be the occasion of rejoicing to every 
crowned head in Europe. Their motto has been " divide 
and conquer." But for many years past there has been a 
change taking place in our favor, a revolution steadily going 
forward in the old government of Europe in behalf of the 
free and oppressed. The Patrician or noble, grown luxurious 
or effeminate, has gone down on the social ladder, and the 
Plebeian has gone up ; and every half century brings them 
nearer, and they are destined soon to meet. De Tocqueville 
in his Democracy in America says : " The various occur- 
rences of national existence have everywhere turned to the 
advantage of Democracy : all men have aided it by their 
exertions ; those who intentionally labored in its cause and 
those who have fought for it and those who have declared 
themselves its opponents, have all been driven along in the 
same track, have labored to one end, some ignorantly and 
some unwillingly ; all have been blind instruments in the 
hands of God. The gradual development of the equality 



16 

of condition is therefore a providential fact and it 

all the characteristics of a divine degree; it is universal ; 
it is durable : it constantly eludes all human interfer- 
and all events as well as all men, contribute to its 
I ss." 

In reviewing the past history of our country at this point, 
it Is evidenl thai the puritan elemenl has done much in giv- 
ing character to our free institutions. New England, which 
the rebels proposed to ••leave out in the cold," has contrib- 
uted her share in laving the foundations of true national 
greatness. Take our Public School System as an illustra- 
; t lie wisdom and foresight of our puritan fathers. The 
early settlers of New England, collected from the better 
classes of English society, having learned to prize free prin- 
ciples in polities and religion at home, brought with them, 
in the Mayflower, views and opinions in advance of their 
times, and which by the blessing of God are destined to 
triumph in the deliverance of the oppressed and the estab- 
lishment of this country on a higher basis of civilization, 
with liberty and equality rather than slavery for its chief 
corner-stone. Intelligence, virtue, freedom and religion, are 
the pillars upon which must rest the national edifice. The 
pilgrims recognized the importance of public education. — 
It is a remark-able fact in the history of those times that, 
while there were fewer dwellings for the living than graves 
fa- the dead, in those stern hours when the stoutest hearts 
may well have quailed before the difficulties which were to 
be encountered, and while they tended the watch-fires of a 
wilderness, exposed at all times to the incursions of savage 
t rilies. they still provided by law the school and schoolmas- 
ter, and directed the one to be maintained and the other to 
toil "for all the youth within the town, whether they be 
children of the poor or children of the rick." In 1634, only 
fourteen years after their settlement on the rock-bound 



17 

shores of New England, they made ample provisions by law 
for the support of free schools. Following this they laid the 
foundations of Harvard College and Yale, that the growing 
wants of the New World should not suffer for lack of men 
" liberally educated." Massachusetts, the home of Hancock, 
Adams and Warren, is not the worst State in the Union — 
she need not be ashamed of her record. The selectmen of 
every town were required bylaw " to have a vigilant eye 
over their neighbors and brethren, to see first that none of 
them shall suffer so much barbarism in any of their families 
as not to teach by themselves or others their children and 
apprentices so much learning as may enable them to read 
the English tongue and obtain a knowledge of the capital 
laws, upon a penalty of twenty shillings for each neglect 
therein ;" which penalty was afterwards increased to twenty 
pounds. The school, like the family, is an embryo republic 
in which is moulded republican character. The children 
learn obedience to law and order, they are taught to respect 
themselves, their minds are disciplined, their latent energies 
developed in the exercise of free thought, the hearts fortified 
by the precepts of morality and religion, so that our sons 
may be as " plants grown up in their youth," prepared 
to appreciate the responsibilities of free government ; and 
the intellectual attainments and accomplishments of our 
daughters make them " as corner stones polished after the 
similitude of a palace," whose virtues and patriotism, like 
those brave and heroic women of the Revolution, shall fit 
them to become the future wives and mothers of this great 
nation. 

While our common school system has been exerting such a 
powerful influence in the free and loyal States, it has proved 
a failure, as far as adopted, by the slaveholding and rebellious 
States. It has been in conflict with their laws to teach a 
slave to read and write, and the poor " white trash " has 



18 

beeo beneath the aotice >>t the lordly aristocrats of the soil. 
Ex-G-overnor Eammond, of South Carolina, recently 
id, in his inaugural address in L842 uses the follow- 
ing language : "The Common School System has failed. — 
This fad has beeo announced by my predecessors, and there 
is scarcely an intelligenl person in the State who doubts that 
its benefits sue perfectly insignificant compared with the ex- 
penditure, lis failure is owing to the fad that it does not 
suit our people, our government, and it can never be reme- 
died." Comment is unnecessary. Bow different the senti- 
ments of Thomas Jefferson, who. in his day, saw the success- 
ful working of this Bystem in New England and endeavored 
to do something for Virginia. " By this bill," said this pro- 
found statesman, legislator and true patriot, "the people 
would be qualified to understand their rights and maintain 
them, and to exercise with intelligence their parts in self- 
nmenl : and all this would be effected without the viola- 
tion of a single natural right of any individual citizen." 
Our southern brethren have departed from the doctrines 
of tin- fathers, — education, liberty and equality,— seeking 
the greatest good to the greatest number, remember- 
ing that God " made of one blood all nations of men." It 
is not in vain that we have pointed to the "school-house and 
the church." While speaking of our educational advanta- 
ges in connection with the government and the rights of man. 
we would not forget that we are a reading people. That 
can be affirmed of our country, which can be asserted of no 
other, vi/. : thai everybody reads, especially "the daily;" 
and we are emphatically a newspaper people. Hence jour- 
nalism has received great attention and been deservedly 
popular in this country. It has absorbed the best talent, 
spared no pains or expense, and consequently been carried to 
a nigh Btate of perfection. Foreigners on visiting our shores 
are -truck with the reading habits of our people. "A porter 



19 

or farmer's servant in the States," says Anthony Trollope, 
"is not proud of reading and writing. It is to him quite a 
matter of course. The coachmen on thiflr boxes, and the 
hoots as they sit in the halls of the hotel, have newspapers 
constantly in their hands. The politics of the country and 
the Constitution are familiar to every laborer. The very 
wording of the Declaration of Independence is in the memory 
of every lad of sixteen." And it is worthy of note, that 
no sooner do the freedmen or contrabands come within 
our lines than they are seized with an unaccountable desire 
to learn to read, that they too may share in the rich boon 
of knowledge. According to the last census it appears 
that we have five hundred daily newspapers, and two 
hundred and fifty million copies are daily sent forth, with 
ink scarcely dry, fresh as the snow flakes, scattering in- 
formation to every nook and corner of the land ; with three 
thousand weeklies, and five million copies struck off annu- 
ally, making their weekly visits to every family, receiving 
everywhere a cordial welcome ; thousands of magazines 
and pamphlets also, that would do honor to the most 
polished and elite of the literary world ; and of " making 
of books there is no end." The magic art of printing is 
doing wonders. 

The time was when it was sneeringly asked " Who reads 
an American book ?" It is not so now. We have men 
eminent in science, art, literature, theology, and historians, 
who deservedly stand prominent in the world of letters, 
whose works are known and admired in other lands. When 
we compare our journals with those that come to us from 
across the waters we are proud to retort, " who does not 
read an American Journal ?" But while we should be 
grateful for our abundant facilities for information, for it 
would seem that the inspired prophecy — " many shall run to 
and fro and knowledge shall be increased" — is being fulfilled 



20 

in our day, we would not overlook the fact that our priv- 
'n these respects are far superior to those enjoyed by 
our worthy ancestors. It is somewhat beyond "the memory 
of the oldest inhabitant " when there was but one solitary 
aper in the whole land, and that was published in 
;. had but a Limited circulation, and was called the 
"Boston Weekly News Letter." This pioneer sheet that 
was destined to be so numei»us in its progeny, commenced 
in 1704. In 'tla' year 1S00 the number had increased to 
two hundred, all of which were local and confined chiefly to 
political matters. Other sections out of New England 
following in tlif wake of Yankee enterprise, established their 
Local papers. The first religious newspaper published in the 
United States appeared in Boston in 1816, and was called 
•• The Boston Recorder." Boston is not the most ignorant 
city in the world. 

A daily, now an indispensable luxury, was a thing un- 
known in those days of rattling stage coaches and tardy 
mails, when a journey to New York and back required at 
Least three weeks time and any amount of hard jolting. — 
With the mammoth presses of our day we are favored 
with morning and evening editions, at least, unless so 
far situated from the " hub of the universe," or so remote 
from the line of railroad that we are compelled to defer 
our morning repast till evening. But so complete and 
rapid are the modes of conveyance that a fact of general 
interest is caught up by the press, or put on "the wires'" 
and it Hies with the wings of the wind and is read by 
every citizen from the eastern frontiers of Maine to the 
remotest settlements of the far West, and is discussed in 
the saloons of California before the sun sinks behind the 
western hills. 

But notwithstanding all our advantages and blessings, our 
growth and success, and all those things that go to make up 



21 

a great nation, the all-pervading thought for the last four 
years— the theme that absorbs all else, is the war. What do 
you think of the war ? What will be the end of this terrible 
struggle ? Shall we survive the contest ? Is our cause a 
righteous one ? — one upon which we may implore the gra- 
cious aid of the God of battles, that he will continue to bless 
our gallant soldiers 'and crown our arms with ultimate and 
glorious victory ? All know that this rebellion was wholly 
without justification, and wicked in the extreme. We had 
a good government justly administered, and so lightly did it 
rest upon us that it was felt only in its innumerable and 
impartial blessings, Jefferson Davis, the President of the 
so-called Southern Confederacy, said in United States Senate 
in the session of 1860-61 that it was " the best government 
ever instituted by man, unexceptionally administered and 
under which the people have been prosperous beyond 
comparison with any other people whose career has been 
recorded in history." The voice of twenty millions of 
American citizens, the utterance of every loyal heart is : " Mr. 
Davis, we intend to preserve and maintain this ' good govern- 
ment,' and hand it down unimpaired, to our children's 
children, ' so help me God.' " And Alexander H. Stephens, 
the Vice President, said in the State Convention in Georgia 
called to consider the subject of secession, " This step once 
taken can never be recalled, and all the baneful consequen- 
ces that must follow must rest on the Convention for all 
coming time." Then depicting the horrors and desolations 
of war — their green fields trodden down by the murderous 
soldiery and the fiery car of war sweeping over the land, he 
endeavors to stay the tide. " Pause, I entreat you. and 
consider for a moment what reasons you can give that will 
even satisfy yourselves in calmer moments, what reasons you 
can give to your fellow sufferers in the calamity that it will 
bring. What right has the North assailed ? What inter- 



22 

. si of the South has been invaded ? What justice lias been 
denied, or whal claim founded in justice or right has been 
withheld ? Can "/>// of you to-day name one governmental 
acl of wrong deliberately and purposely dune by the govern- 
menl al Washington of which the South has a right to com- 
plain ? 1 challenge the answer.'" But the dark tide of 
don that was sweeping over the South was irresistible 
and you find him carried along with it. War is a calamity. 
and the history of the world shows us that most of its wars 
and national frays have been such as religion and equity 
could nol sanction, and have mostly been entitled to Napo- 
leon's harsh compliment, " War is a hellish trade." But to 
sustain our government is a plain Christian duty. Self pres- 
ervation is a law of nature. Government is a divine institu- 
tion. "The powers that be are ordained of God." The 
American Government is God's ordinance for the American 
j eople. This hold conspiracy to. overthrow our Government. 
wicked than that of Cataline, this heaven-daring slave- 
holder's Rebellion — bora of nullification, treason and despot- 
ism, sprung from ambition, fattened by thieving, enriched 
by traffic in human blood and carried on by brute force, 
must be put down at whatever cost. The siuord is the 
only way to a permanent and honorable peace. While 
traitors are in arms, let such heroes as Grant, Sherman and 
Sheridan, by the blessing of heaven, be our only peace com- 
missioners. The clearly-expressed sentiments of the loyal 
people of America, as evinced in the late elections (I speak 
rj a of party triumphs) is, in the ever memorable words of 
Andrew Jackson, "The Union it must and shall be pre- 
rved." There is power in ballots as well as in bullets and 
swords. A-> we fear God, as we love our country, as we 
> igard the interests of our fellow-actors in the strife, as we 
desire to leave a valuable and peaceful inheritance to pos- 
terity, as we reverence the eternal principles of truth, justice 



23 

and humanity, let no one hesitate nor shrink for a moment 
from the momentous issues that we are called in the }) j< >\i - 
dence of Grod to meet. In the language of Holy Writ, 
" Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully/' 
or with a faint heart, and " Cursed be he that keepethback his 
sword from blood." And says the Psalmist David, " Bless- 
ed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to 
war and my fingers to fight." I know it is said that fight- 
ing is contrary to the teachings of Christ, who is called 
" the Prince of Peace." True, his doctrines are all peaceful, 
all conducive to the highest interests of man, but to sin 
in every form all these doctrines are terribly antagonistic. — 
Men hate them ; devils hate them ; and so make war upon 
them. Christ declared the tendency of the promulgation of 
his doctrines and the result of their conflict with human 
nature. " Think not," he says, " that I am come to send 
peace on earth : I came not to send peace, but a sword. For 
I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and 
the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law 
against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they 
of his own household." The doctrine of an "irrepressi- 
ble conflict " did not originate with Wm. H. Seward or 
Northern abolitionists. The religion of Christ is not to be 
propagated by the sword ; its spirit is to use moral means 
only, and is disposed to suffer wrong rather than do wrong 
or resist. But when the question comes, Shall we give up a 
right principle or fight ? sacrifice our Government and with 
it all civil and religious liberty as taught in the Bible, or 
contend ? Providence makes plain our duty. The history 
of the world shows that men are called of Grod to " resist 
unto blood, striving against sin." He declares that he will 
" overturn, overturn, until He come whose right it is." 
Despotism, barbarism, struggle to crush freedom and civiliz- 
ation, and for a time the conflict may seem doubtful, but 



24 

God always raises up those who successfully defend and 

maintain the right. War is noi always the worst evil that 
can befall a nation. And we were compelled by justice, 
patriotism and the principles of our holy religion, to take the 
Bword. The first guu fired at Sumter awoke a nation to 
arms! Suddenly the war-blast burst upon us I Astonish- 
menl was written upon every countenance. But every 
loyal hear! beal in unison. The whole North was aroused 
and united, and as by magic or like the dragon's teeth sown 
by Cadmus, armed hosts sprang up and a million of as 
brave and patriotic men as ever wore a soldier's uniform, 
stood in martial array ! The baptism of the old fire was 
upon them ! The scenes and exploits of the Eevolution 
were to be re-enacted with a courage and daring equal to 
Leonidas of old or the heroes who fought and bled at Mara- 
thon and Plat;ea. 

" The sword ! a name of dread, yet when 
i the freeman's thigh 'tis bound, 
While for his altar and his hearth, 
While fur the land that izave him birth, 
The war-drums roll, the trumpets sound. 
Bow sacred is it then !" 

In the name of our republican institutions, in the name of 
liberty, justice and equality, shall the great problem of self- 
government so successfully and gloriously entered upon by 
our Revolutionary lathers — the heroes and patriots of '76 — 
prove a failure, and the rising hope of the world set forever 
in darkness and gloom ? 

'• We are summoned to new energy and zeal by the high 
nature of the experiment we are appointed in Providence to 
make, and the grandeur of the theatre upon which it is to 
be performed." When the Old World no longer afforded 
a/ay hope, it pleased Heaven to open this last refuge to 
aity. The wise and good of all past ages, the sages. 



25 

philosophers and heroes of antiquity, are interested in the 
final issue of this great struggle. The noble spirits of 
Greece and Rome, in their Periclean and Augustan agee 
that long ago passed to the shades, with bright visions of 
model republics, more glorious than Sparta or Athens, turn 
their anxious gaze toward us : and, not only generations 
past, but generations to come hold us responsible. Our 
fathers from behind admonish us with their anxious parental 
voices ; posterity calls to us from the bosom of the future. 
Let not the warnings of history be lost upon us : Rome, 
the seven-hilled city, once mistress of the world, but through 
her oppression, imbecility, corruption, and traitors at home 
and enemies abroad, fell from her giddy height ; and though 
three hundred years in dying, she now sleeps in the sepulchre 
of ages. But though nations have sunk and disappeared : 
humanity endures. Nations die ; but people live. The 
majestic current of history flows on forever, bearing on its 
mysterious waves the- priceless freight of humanity ; and 
while rocks and breakers threaten, shall we come boldly to 
the rescue and make our country immortal as that humanity 
of whose hopes it is the centre,— for our land is to be the 
last great battle ground of the ages, the Thermopyla3 of the 
nations, — or shall we by our imbecility and cowardice prove 
recreant and false to the solemn trusts committed to our 
keeping by the God of humanity, and this priceless freight, 
and we ourselves along with it, go down foundering amid 
darkness and tempest ? Forbid it, Almighty God ! If 
departed spirits take cognizance of what transpires on earth, 
it is no flourish of rhetoric or the imagination to see those 
who lavished their treasures and their blood of old, who 
labored and suffered, who spoke and wrote, who fought and 
perished, in the one great cause of freedom and truth, now 
hanging from their orbs on high over this last great experi- 
ment, and this last terrible and bloody conflict ! c: They 



26 

adjure us. and with outstretched hands they implore us, by 
the long trials of oppressed man, by the noble faith which 
has been plighted by pure hands to the holy cause of liber- 
ty, by the awful secrets of prison-houses where the s< 
freedom have been immured to famish and to die, by the 
noble heads which have been brought to the block, by the 
wrecks of time, by the eloquent ruins of nations, they con- 
jure us no1 to quench the light which is rising on the 
world !" 

In i ur b tasted land of freedom there were, at the break- 
ing oul of the war, four millions of our fellow-beings held 
The cry of the bondmen had sounded long in 
our ear-, unheeded. " Behold, the hire of the laborers who 
have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept hack by 
fraud, crieth : and the cries of them which have reaped are 
entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." The wail 
of the oppressed and down-trodden, groaning under the 
lash, their manacles tightened, hopelessly grinding in the 
prison-house of ignorance and degradation, has been "0 
Lord ! how long!" 



" i » from the fields of cane. 
From the low rice-swamp, from the trailer's cell 
From the black slave-ship's foul and loatl ■■ 

Ami coffle's weary chain ; 

Eoarse, horriblej and strong, 
Rises i" heaven that agonizing cry. 
Filling the arches of the hollow sky. 

How long, God, how long!" 



James .Madison once said, " This has been the pride and 
boasl of America — the rights for which we contend are the 
rights of human nature." The time has come in the provi- 
dence of G-od when the iron heel of despotism must be 
removed from the necks of the oppressed. 



27 

" Was man ordained the slave of man to toil, 
Yoked with the brutes and fettered to the soil ; 
Weighed in a tyrant's balance with his gold 1 

Woe then to all who grind 
Their brethren of a common Father down ; 

To all who plunder from the immortal mind 
Its bright and glorious crown !" 

If in putting down this Kebellion, Slavery goes down with 
it— as the logic of events most clearly indicates — if God in 
his justice, who has been saying " Let my people go," has 
seen fit to cause the wrath of man to praise him, and by his 
wrathful thunderbolts is striking down to earth the giant 
Slavery, when it is now weak and bleeding and insensible 
and about to expire, and soon to be buried forever out of 
sight, let no sympathizing heart draw near for other purpose 
than to smooth and hasten its passage to oblivion. Let no 
traitor to truth and God and man and all the virtues dare 
attempt to resuscitate the unseemly monster — by breathing 
into his nostrils the breath of life. In that case no eye 
should pity, no hand should spare. While we are passing 
.through the Bed Sea may we leave Slavery as Israel did the 
Egyptian host — dead beneath its waves. Then with them 
let us sing 

" Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea, 
Jehovah has triumphed, his people are free." 

We live in eventful times. We are making history rap- 
idly. It is said that the " mills of God grind slowly," yet a 
nation is born in a day. The Lord hath led us in a way 
that we knew not. " By terrible things in righteousness 
wilt thou answer us, God of our salvation." This baptism 
of blood means something. 

" Heaven but tries our virtues by affliction, 
And oft the cloud which wraps the present hour 
Serves but to brighten all our future days." 



28 

L i us qo1 forget the Divine promise, "At evening time 
it shall be light." This rehel war. precipitated upon the 
country by slaveholders for strengthening the "peculiar 
institution," and to establish a Confederacy with Slavery for 
it- corner-stone, is to-day "proclaiming liberty throughout 
all the land to all the inhabitants thereof— liberty to the 
captive, ami the opening of tin- prison doors to them that 
are bound." Slavery, which Jefferson in his forecast had 
anticipated as '" the rock on which the Old Union would 
split," is now doomed in this country. It never had a moral 
right to live, and by the exigencies of war it has lost its 
legal and political right to existence; and its death-throes 
are already felt at Richmond and through the South, for 
tlic rebels know that to arm slaves is to kill Slavery. This 
{i sum of all villanies" must give up the ghost and ho locked 
in a grave which no trumpet of resurrection shall ever dis- 
turb. Upwards of two million of freedmen, made such by 
the progress of the Rebellion, now rejoice in the priceless 
boon of liberty. Is not God in this war ? Does he not 
ride upon the whirlwind and direct the storm ? lias not 
the A.ngel of the Lord led our winding march ? The "pil- 
lar of cloud" has indeed swept broad circuits before us. The 
"pillar of tire'' has rolled its blasting brightness in far 
curves, transcending our thought to explain, revealing the 
foolishness of human wisdom, mocking all our hope, but 
forcing us to follow. But better to go a crooked way under 
the guidance of the God of Israel, than straight to the 
promised land without it. Better wander forty years in a 
wilderness of wars and desolations than turn from the path 
to which he calls us. Ee has higher ends in view than the 
dot ruction of our foes. He has richer experience tor us 
than the joy of victory, lie has better gifts for us than the 
spoils of the conqueror : "For my thoughts are not your 
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. 



29 

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways 
higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your 
thoughts." In concluding, let us devoutly remember that 
the Lord " hath not dealt with us after our sins nor 
rewarded us according to our iniquities." He desires not 
our overthrow and destruction, hut our chastisement and 
deliverance. In our pride and eager pursuit of gain we had 
forgotten God and those things that make for our peace. 
The Lord having brought us into a good land, in our unpar- 
alleled prosj)erity we were saying, in the words of our Scrip- 
ture lesson, " My power and the might of my hand hath 
gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord 
thy God ; for it is he that giveth thee the power to get 
wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware 
unto thy fathers, as it is this day." 

Let us be thankful as we call to mind our victories, naval, 
and military ; the ability, bravery and skill of our command- 
ers ; the fortitude and heroism of our gallant soldiers, who 
have met the enemy on many a well-fought field — and 
alas, who have fallen , it may be, in the moment of victory, 
and who now sleep in the patriot's green grave. Let us be 
thankful for the loyalty of the people to the Government 
and the administration, the progress of emancipation ; for 
the re-election of our honest and faithful Chief Magistrate, 
the increasing respect shown us from abroad, the allaying 
of political animosities and party strife among ourselves, 
and the omens of a speedy return of the "era of good 
feeling ;" the kindness and benevolence shown to our sick 
and wounded soldiers, and for the bright hope, like the 
rain-bow in the cloud, we are permitted to cherish of a 
peaceful and glorious future, when war shall cease, the 
Union be restored, and over every foot of our free and 
happy land 

" The Star- Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave." 



30 

And in the festivities of the day let us not forget the 
v.IiImu and the fatherless, the poor and the needy, especially 
the families of our noble soldiers, thai none in our midst 
shall be wanting in any of the good things that usually 
accompany a New England Thanksgiving; thus loving our 
neighb iras ourselves, ever bearing in mind the words of our 
1 Lord and Saviour: "Inasmuch as ye have done it 
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it 



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